Moreover, Othello experiences betrayal through his friend ‘honest’ Iago. Iago manipulates his trusting and rash nature by leading him to believe that his wife is cheating on him. Othello clearly puts much faith in Iago, even making him lieutenant as a reward for this ‘loyalty’: “For the fair devil. Now art thou my lieutenant” (3.3.170). However, this faith is misplaced, as Iago continuously conspires against him. Iago’s manipulation causes Othello’s emotional grief, believing Desdemona has betrayed the holiness of their marriage, causing him fits of rage and seizures. Moreover, due to Iago’s deceit, Othello betrays his wife, murdering Desdemona as ‘punishment’ for her apparent betrayal. “Sweet soul, take heed, / Take heed of perjury; thou art on thy deathbed” (5.2.61-62). In reality, …show more content…
“Full of crusadoes: and, but my noble Moor / Is true of mind and made of no such baseness” (3.4.26-27). However, as the play progresses, Othello treats her continually wrathful, even slapping her in public. With her faith in him gone, she laments the loss of her once loving husband. The truth of Iago’s betrayal to Othello is revealed after Desdemona’s death. All the same, Othello cannot handle the truth of betrayal, choosing to commit suicide to atone for his sins. However, Othello chooses not to kill Iago for his betrayal portraying the duality of his character – though he kills Desdemona due to her betrayal he spares Iago’s life. Othello chooses not to betray his own morals once more, showing he realized his error in killing Desdemona. Hamlet and Othello share similarities in that they are betrayed, and due to this emotional trauma, they in turn betray as well. Hamlet justifies his betrayal of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern as justice because they aided the corrupt King Claudius, under the guise of actually caring about Hamlet’s wellbeing. In response, Hamlet indirectly murders them as
The more Othello realizes how much would value his future with Desdemona, the more betrayed he feels. Othello begins to think that his entire investment in Desdemona is for naught, transforming Othello’s passion into spite. Iago exploits the underside of deep devotion - jealously. The emotions Othello feels - attachment, jealously, and hate - drives him mad, obscuring the logic of the situation - that Iago is only spreading fantasized rumors about Cassio and Desdemona. Instead of confronting Cassio, Othello accepts Desdemona’s treason as truth. Iago may have mastered Othello’s emotions, but Othello allows his emotions to consume him. People need to confront their feelings and not lose track of logic. Otherwise, even something as sincere as Othello’s fondness for Desdemona can turn one into a
In William Shaspeare play Othello, Iago make Othello believe that Desdemona is having an affair with Cassio. He does by taking advantage of any situation to make of Othello doubt. Iago make Othello thing a lot of crazy thing on his head, Othello got so jelous leading him to kill his own wife, Desdemona, satisfying iago obseccion for revenge.
Iago wanted Othello’s position and used others to shame Othello and gain stature. Iago dressed himself up a trustworthy man and worked his way into Othello’s trust with tricks and lies. He wore a very convincing mask; often temporarily defending the person he was trying to ruin to further his honest visage. He says to Othello, “Men should be what they seem…” (3.3.127) through these methods, Iago convinces Othello that Cassio, an officer, was having an affair with Othello’s beautiful wife Desdemona. As a vicious result, Othello is driven mad with anger and sadness and throttles Desdemona in their bed. The death and want left by Iago’s deception is vast hurting everyone involved most frequently on a mortal level. When the truth finally comes out, Othello, in his grief and remorse, ends up stabbing himself with a dagger. In the end, many die due to Iago’s deception, through villainy or despair, and none gain what they truly want because of it. This just goes to show that the mask of deception that a man wears can cause an unbelievable amount of harm, bodily and worse,
In the play Othello, the very evil and conniving character Iago deceives the main characters. He prays mostly on the main character Othello. Othello is a black general who is married to a white woman named Desdemona. In the beginning of the play Othello promotes a man named Cassio to be his right hand man in his army. Iago, thinking that he was going to get the promotion, is furious by this and swears revenge on Othello. In his revenge he uses many people. One of these people is Rodrigo. He is in love with Othello’s wife Desdemona. Iago prays on Rodrigo and causes him to have a battle with Cassio. Iago prays very heavily on Othello towards the middle of the play. He begins to tell him that his wife Desdemona is cheating on him with Cassio. Iago plans this perfectly. Iago tells Othello to keep close watch on his wife Desdemona. At the same time he told Cassio to be very good to Desdemona. Iago tells Cassio that the only way to be back on Othello’s good side was to get close to his love, and that is Desdemona. So while Othello’s suspicious are up, Cassio is being especially nice to Desdemona. Iago chose a very good time to attack Othello’s emotions. At a time when Cassio has wronged Othello, he tells Cassio to get close to Othello’s wife, the love of his life. For a lot of Othello’s rule, Iago has been like Othello’s advise giver. He has been like a best friend to Othello. Iago was not only Othello’s advise giver but to many persons of power. This puts him in a great position already to do his evil bidding. Othello plays right along with Iago’s plan. Othello believes everything that Iago says. In a way, he falls into Iago’s plan a little to well. For Iago, everything happens at exactly the right time. Othello listens to what Iago says because Iago has gained much trust from Othello. He has no reason not to believe what Iago was saying. He played a part in his own downfall because he falls for every lie that Iago throws at him. He needed to have a stronger mind for things like that. Othello needed to think harder about what was being said to him by Iago. At the time that Iago was telling him these lies, it all seemed to make sense.
Shakespearian tales always leave us with a plethora to ponder about the Elizabethan age and Shakespeare himself. “Othello” is no break in this mold, leaving us to ponder the roll of Iago within the harsh tale of love and murder. Iago is the one to tell Othello of his wife’s betrayal with Cassio, hence making up a story that will work to his favor yet betray those around him. Iago betrays his wife, Emilia, but not only her as he drags Othello, Desdemona, and Cassio into the mix of lies and the hatred he is spreading to improve his rank with Othello. But were Iago’s acts unjust and done for the sake of it? Is he a heartless man who’s only happiness is to bring sorrow upon others? No, Iago has a just reason for what he does, even though he causes the deaths of Cassio, Emilia, and Desdemona in his search for revenge; Iago is not a heartless fiend, just a man wronged.
In The Tragedy of Othello, William Shakespeare tells the tale of the “noble Moor” whose honor and innocence bring about his downfall. Shakespeare writes of the power of jealousy, and the art of masterful deception and trickery. The story primarily takes place in Cyprus, during a war between the people of Venice and the invading Turks. In this play Shakespeare shows the feelings of Othello’s embittered right-hand man of, Iago, who feels he is passed over for a promotion and swears his revenge. He proceeds to manipulate his friends, enemies, and family into doing his bidding without any of them ever realizing his ultimate goal. He makes Othello believe that his new wife, the innocent Desdemona, is committing adultery with his newly promoted officer Michael Cassio. After this seed of jealousy has been planted, Othello’s mind takes its course in determining the true outcome, with a little more nudging from Iago. The course of action he proceeds to follow is one that not only ends his own life, but also the life of his wife and others. In Shakespeare’s Tragedy of Othello, Othello is a man who is still truly honorable, despite the course of action he takes to resolve his perceived problem.
Othello, a play by William Shakespeare, tells the tragic tale of the black Venetian general, Othello, and how he is manipulated by his ambitious friend, Iago. Iago becomes angry at Othello when he promotes Michael Cassio rather than Iago to the lieutenancy. Iago then schemes a plot to take down Othello. Iago uses Desdemona, Othello’s new wife, to take down the great general. He leads Othello to considering that his wife is cheating on him with Michael Cassio. This causes Othello to become suspicious and eventually drives Othello into killing Desdemona. In the end, Othello learns that his wife was faithful, and Iago had lied to him. This upsets Othello and causes him to also kill himself. Iago’s many motives are never revealed to the audience or the characters as in the last scene he states, “Demand me nothing. What you know, you know. From this time forth I never will speak word.” (Othello. Act 5 Scene 2: 355-356). In the play Othello, Iago is the master manipulator that formulates devious plots against the characters of Roderigo, Cassio, and Othello by using their desires to his advantage to reveal their underlying weaknesses.
Iago is one of the most complex characters in William Shakespeare’s Othello. To most of the characters, he is “Honest Iago” (Shakespeare, 5.2.73). however, the audience knows that Iago is the furthest thing from honest. Iago is a devil bent on destroying the lives of everyone around him. At the beginning of the play, the audience learns that Iago is determined to ruin Othello’s marriage to Desdemona. He has appointed a new lieutenant, Michael Cassio. This angers Iago because he feels that he has much more military experience and should be the lieutenant. Iago has also heard rumours that both Othello and Cassio have slept with his wife Emilia. He concocts a malicious plan to ruin the lives of all who have wronged him, and consequently establishing
Language and imagination are among the most dangerous weapons Iago has at his disposal in Othello. Jealous and angered by Othello’s - his commanding officer - passing over him for a promotion, Iago develops a fierce, antagonistic perspective the aforementioned character; this sentiment quickly corrupts his volition, and he subsequently concocts a plot bent on destroying Othello. He renders this revenge scheme credible by concealing his true feelings behind a facade of loyalty and trustworthiness, and fabricating a fictitious story concerning the infidelity of Desdemona, Othello’s wife. Until the play concludes, Iago utilizes purposeful rhetoric to drive his agenda, and also a mastery of deception to mislead the minds of his targets.
Iago's honest betrayal has left Othello pondering over Desdemona's faithfulness. Believing the words of his most honest ancient, Othello gullibly succumbs to his insinuations of his wife, Desdemona, as being unfaithful. Through Othello's soliloquy, he is not the self-confident General formerly portrayed as. Instead, his indecision over his wife's infidelity has caused him to explore his flaws as a human being, showing signs of appearance versus reality.
Iago takes on many different persona’s to enact his plan of revenge upon Othello. He plays the friend, a trustworthy and credible source of information for Othello in his feat of drama with his innocent wife, Desdemona. He also plays the wingman for Roderigo who is madly in love with Desdemona, encouraging him to make advances towards her to woo Desdemona away from Othello. Iago even persuades Roderigo to kill Cassio with his lies about Cassio and Desdemona’s affair. “...you may take him at your pleasure: I will be near to second your attempt, and he shall fall between us.” Iago promises to assist Roderigo in the murder of Cassio and he will be rewarded with Desdemona’s love (Navigators.) Iago’s true persona, though, is a heartless, woman-hating villain who would go to great lengths to get revenge against Othello for preferring Cassio over him for the military promotion.
As Othello is seen being manipulated by mere scandal, his path to betrayal has just begun. In the beginning, Iago’s determination to become a lieutenant drove him to deceive Othello in order to prove Othello’s wrongdoing for not choosing him—resulting in the fall of Othello and his love ones. In Act Ⅳ, scene ⅰ, Iago keeps Othello focused on the disloyalty of Desdemona, in which made Othello get mad by the idea of his wife with another man. The constant support of
When evil conceives the good, most schemes are successful but each differently and its own way. Some could represent evil at an advanced diabolical scheme, but some may be as simple as a neighbor, classmate, someone in the community, or even worse; a friend. In the play Othello, the simple ancient, Iago is very successful at his influencing schemes. Iago provokes his evilness by retrieving trust and appear as an honest, loving person. Without the knowledge of the nature of good, Iago will not be successful in mastering schemes of nature of evil. Each point is explored further into Iago’s manipulation schemes and will analyze the nature of evil portrayed throughout the play.
Othello’s own problems lead him to murder Desdemona. He has insecurity issues with himself. In the beginning of the play, Othello is confident. Iago speaks of Othello in a lowly manner oftentimes. He even calls him an “old black ram” and describes him as “tupping your white ewe” (1.1.9) when he wakens Brabantio with news of Desdemona’s marriage to Othello. Othello starts to degrade himself by saying “rude am I in speech” (1.3.96). This loss of confidence puts a dent in his relationship with Desdemona, laying the pavement for her later death. He is gullible for allowing Iago’s remarks to affect him. Therefore, Othello’s own personal conflicts lead to Desdemona’s demise.
Iago had tricked Othello into believing that Desdemona cheated on him with Cassio, thus causing him to become jealous. His jealousy overcame his usual respectable, noble personality and he became irrational and violent. His jealousy and rage lead him to kill his wife, something he would never have done if he had not been jealous.